Education
Charlene Fite received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tennessee.
Charlene Fite received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tennessee.
She received a master"s degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Since 2000, Fite has been employed as a school psychology specialist by the public schools in Fort Smith. She was previously a special education teacher in Fort Smith except for one year in the middle 1990s in Pulaski County.
She is a former officer of the Crawford County Republican Party.
Fite"s husband, Thomas Lile "Tom" Fite (born 1944), was the Republican legislative candidate in 2010 in the former District 83. In the 2012 Republican primary in the new District 80, Fite defeated Terry Bibbs, 1,106 (542 percent) to 936 (458 percent).
She then topped the Democrat Jack Norton in the general election, 6,173 (574) to 4,575 (426 percent). The District 80 seat was vacated by the Republican Linda Collins-Smith, who instead ran unsuccessfully for the Arkansas State Senate in District 19.
Meanwhile, Leslee Post was unseated in District 82, to which she was transferred, by the Republican Bill Gossage of Ozark in Franklin County.
Representative Fite in 2013 joined the required majority to override the vetoes of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact legislation to require photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. She co-sponsored both of those measures. Fite similarly supported related pro-life legislation to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases.
She voted for a proposed spending cap in the state budget, but the measure failed to gain approval by two votes in the House.
She co-sponsored amended state income tax rates. She co-sponsored the bill to empower officials of religious institutions to engage in concealed carry of firearms.
Fite backed similar legislation to permit university officials to carry concealed weapons in the name of campus safety. She co-sponsored legislation to prohibit the governor from regulating firearms in an emergency.
Fite opposed legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan.
She voted for a law, signed by Governor Beebe, to permit the sale of up to five hundred gallons per month of unpasteurized whole milk directly from the farm to consumers. She voted to prohibit the closure of public schools based on declining enrollments over a two-year period, but the measure was defeated.
The two greatest commandments are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."
Represented in Baptist churches are equally diverse worship styles, cultural mores and approaches to Scriptural interpretation. The resulting challenges and opportunities have made the believers stronger —through fellowship, respect, mutual support and dialog, all based on a belief that unity in Christ involves growth and understanding.
A true Christian should help those in need, regardless of religious affiliation.
A member of the First Baptist Church of Alma in Crawford County, Fite formerly served two terms as a board member of the Arkansas Baptist Executive Committee. Fite is a member of these House committee: (1) Advanced Communications and Information Technology, (2) Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, and (3) Judiciary.